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The Team

On Friday 11th March 2022 a group of six people travelled to Warsaw, Poland to support refugees crossing from Ukraine into Poland.

The team:
Gary Silver
Sandra Galilejeva

Ukraine war: Refugee family find new life in Oxfordshire

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Providing shelter from conflict

Providing shelter from conflict
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Introduction from Gary Silver

gary silver

Fundraising and Project Lead

Like all of us watching the news over the last couple of weeks I have been incensed by the completely unnecessary and unprovoked violence unleashed on Ukraine leading to the largest displacement of people in Europe since the Second World War. I have protested, I have posted angry messages on my social media platforms, I have cried many times and finally I decided to actually get up and do something. Just a bit about me. I own and run a UK based property investment and development company that specialises in large scale community development and urban regeneration projects.

My company website is: www.dorchestergrp.com

What we are doing is as follows:

I’m currently travelling to and from Poland with a group of friends helping to relocate displaced Ukrainian refugees to their final destinations, providing them as necessary with transport, temporary accommodation, money and other essentials as they may require. We have been posting content from this trip to further raise awareness of the plight of the refugees providing real time stories of our experiences.

Since we started fundraising several impresarios in the house music industry have approached us and we are pleased to say that on top our direct fundraising activities we have secured percentages of ticket sales for two major London house music events supported by prominent DJs. As well as my company and it’s suppliers providing a significant financial contribution, my company are also looking to sponsor several refugees into the UK into some of our existing apprenticeship schemes in the hospitality and construction sectors. What started off as a small endeavor has snowballed into something much bigger. What we think is neat about this idea is that we are providing our social networks and media with real life stories from the front line with direct interactions with the refugees that our ambassadors can also share with their influence base.

News Stories

Read articles on Dorchester Regeneration’s efforts to help Ukraine on national and regional news websites:

BBC News clip

Times newspaper article

Sandra Gailijeva
Refugee liaison and placement
From Latvia

Professional background: Lawyer (specialised in contractual law). Also used to work in property management

Reasons for supporting this cause: Coming from a Post Soviet country, Russia’s aggression and attempts of robbing Ukrainian people of their freedoms resonates painfully within me.
I am standing up for Ukrainian people and with this initiative trying to help personally to displaced refugees.

Each member of the team is highly valued and has a specific role in order to provide support.

Overview of on the ground support

The ways in which we supported refugees’ short term and longer term:

Accommodation
Transportation
Communication
Visa application support
Care packages
https://Icanhelp.host/

Achievements in the first week

Long term accommodation
9 families

Short term accommodation
32 families

Long haul transportation
1 family

International transport provider
2 families

Total
57 adults helped
55 children helped

Fundraising routes to date

Crowdfunding www.justgiving.com Business to business fundraising
  • With the support of Dorchester Regeneration supply chain
  • Corporate pledges
  • Social media
  • Press related
  • Ticket sales from events

Telling the story

This is Viktoria…

Anastasia’s story…

International Circus Performers…

How can you help support us support refugees?

  1. Provision of short- and long-term accommodation
  2. Help with fundraising activities
  3. Goodwill ambassadors
  4. Drivers taking transport into Poland transporting refugees
  5. Translators
  6. Supplies

Contact Information

Project Team

Gary Silver
Sandra Galilejeva
Email:
[email protected]

Contact

With special thanks to the following organizations and individuals:

Ageturs UK
Andzela Zaborovska
Dorchester Regeneration
Dorchester Living
Giovanni Nappi
Servon Design
Close Up Productions
Proper PR
Simon Morell
Justin Taylor
Ola Pakula
Martin Brown
Paul Silver

Natalie Belasco Marketing
Holly Winfield
Unique Window Systems
Paul Wedgewood & Linda Bougheraba
Our ‘on the ground’ station volunteers 
Gordon League RFC
Rexton Investments